MOUNT KENYA

Mount Kenya, extinct volcano in central Kenya, located just south of the equator. With an elevation of 5,199 m (17,057 ft), Mount Kenya is the second highest mountain in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. Mount Kenya was created by massive, successive eruptions of a volcano 2.5 million to 3 million years ago. Mount Kenya originally had a summit crater, but erosion wore the cone away, leaving a series of snow- and glacier-covered peaks, and valleys containing frozen lakes. But in the last 150,000 years the volcano’s glaciers have been losing ground to warmer climate. As recently as the late 19th century, seven of these glaciers melted completely away. The several that remain are retreating rapidly. Mount Kenya features an array of ecosystems and climatic zones. Grasslands and low trees grow on the basal plateau of the mountain. Rising above the basal plateau, a ring of dense rain forest covers the mountain slopes up to about 3,200 m (about 10,500 ft). Above this rain forest, alpine zone vegetation covers the mountain to about 4,600 m (about 15,000 ft), where it dwindles to mosses and lichens living on the snow-encrusted rocks. From the crowned eagle and mountain buzzard that inhabit the upper mountainous regions to the elephants, rhinoceroses, forest hogs, and Sykes monkeys that live in the dense forest areas, many animal species gain sustenance from this varied vegetation. The numerous rivers radiating from the central cone and the volcanic soils create a fertile environment. The lower slopes of Mount Kenya are cultivated by the Kikuyu and the related Embu and Meru peoples. The Swahili name given to Mount Kenya by the Kikuyu, Kirinyaga, translates to “mountain of whiteness.”